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MEMORIAL 



OF 



GEORGE L. RIVES 



BY 



STEPHEN H. OLIN 



FROM 

THE YEAR BOOK OF THE 

ASSOCIATION OF THE BAR 

OF THE 

QTY OF NEW YORK 

J9t8 



MEMORIAL 

OF 

GEORGE L. RIVES 

BY 

STEPHEN R OLIN 






n ^ 




EORGE Lockhart Rives, who had served this Associ- 
ation as vice-president, and often during thirty-five 
years upon its committees, died at his summer home, 
in Newport, on August i8, 1917. 

He was born in the City of New York on May i , 1848. 

His father was Francis R. Rives, a highly respected citizen of 
New York. His grandfather was WilHam C. Rives, of "Castle 
Hill," Virginia, author, senator, and diplomat. 

His mother's grandfather was Thomas Barclay, long time Brit- 
ish Consul General in New York. "Nearly fifty years of his 
life were spent in the public service of Great Britain, and yet he 
was by descent and marriage, as well as by birth and residence, 
essentially an American and not an Englishman. He was indeed 
a very typical New Yorker, of the pre-Revolutionary type; closely 
allied to the English Church and the Royal Government, but 
tracing his descent back through three generations to some of the 
earliest settlers in the colonies." 

On the mother's side, there could also be traced along line of 
British ancestors. From one of these, a few years ago, descended 
an estate in England, which Rives sold, and in 1915 the House of 
Lords, having before it the Barony of Wharton, created in 1543 
but in abeyance since 1731 , granted a petition for its revival, say- 
ing that the petitioner and George Lockhart Rives, who made no 
claim to the barony, were the present co-heirs of it. 

Thus, except a few of the early settlers of New Amsterdam, 
all of his ancestors came from Scotch or English stock, but for 
about two centuries most of them had been Virginians or New 
Yorkers. To understand his character, it is not necessary to go 

3 




beyond these lines of American descent, or to claim for him, as 
he would not have claimed, any quality which did not form a 
part of his American inheritance. 

George Rives graduated with honor at Coltimbia College in 
1868 and matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge. 

At the University he rowed in the boat which was the head of 
the river. He was one of that fastidious company ' ' The Twelve 
Apostles," to which in their time Tennyson and Hallam had 
belonged. He was a winner of prizes, notably the Harness Essay 
prize, awarded once in three years among undergraduates and 
graduates of less than three years' standing, and in the Mathe- 
matical Tripos of 1872, he was Fifth Wrangler. 

Returning to New York, he took his bachelor's degree and 
one of the prizes at the Columbia University Law School in 
1873. He joined with me in a law firm, which, with some 
change of name and of membership, continued during his ac- 
tive practice. 

He was a thorough student. The reports in our library were 
kept briefly annotated in his clear and vigorous handwriting. His 
cases were carefully prepared and well tried, but he was impatient 
of the delay and uncertainty of litigation and soon became 
chiefly an adviser and a draftsman of wills and contracts, com- 
bining, as he did, legal learning with unusual business ability. 

Rives was a Democrat, but too independent in opinion to be 
a strong partisan. He was never a candidate for office, and was 
interested in politics rather as a science than as an art. 

In 1887, during the first administration of President Cleveland, 
he was appointed Assistant Secretary of State of the United States. 
Gaining the confidence and friendship of Secretary Bayard, he 
was given a free hand in regulating the consular system and the 
business methods of the department and he showed a marked 
talent for organization and administration. 

After his term of office in Washington, he was counsel of that 
excellent board, the first New York Rapid Transit Commission, 
and for six years beginning in 1896 a member of it, and thus dealt 
with the novel and intricate legal questions which arose during 
the building of the first subways. 

In 1900, by appointment of Governor Roosevelt, Rives was 

4 



president of the commission which revised the Charter of the 
Greater New York, and accompHshed its work within narrow 
limits of time and with unhoped-for harmony and success. 

In 1902, Mayor Low appointed him Corporation Counsel, 
and it was his task to bring together and to redistribute the 
legal service of the different boroughs. This was skillfully 
done, and the city's law business was ably managed. Over- 
seeing the work of his subordinates and always keeping up 
with his own, Rives sat at his well-ordered table, a model chief 
of a great law office. 

As a trustee of Columbia University, he took an active part in 
modernizing the methods of instruction in the Law School and in 
making radical changes which have widely affected our system of 
legal education. He served, too, for years upon the committee 
appointed by the Appellate Division to pass upon the character 
and fitness of candidates for admission to the Bar. 

In 1905, Rives, with John L. Cadwalader and Lewis Cass Led- 
yard (both in their time presidents of this Association) completed 
the task of organizing the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, 
and Tilden Foundations. To bring together diverse interests; 
to obtain the authority of the Legislature and the co-operation of 
the City authorities; from small beginnings to develop the great 
library, with scores of branches in three boroughs — all expertly 
directed, all admirably housed, all working with smooth efficiency 
and marvelous success — was a masterpiece of a form of public 
service which, though needing much besides legal ability, only 
lawyers can render. 

When in 1904 he ceased to be Corporation Counsel, Rives did 
not return to active practice. He came daily to his office, but 
he was occupied, as in great degree he had always been, with 
many things of varying importance — the care of estates, the 
duties of director in corporations, such as the Bank of New 
York and the United States Trust Company, the action of 
the Municipal Art Commission, the work of committees charged 
with civic ceremonies, the affairs of charitable organizations 
and of clubs in this city and in Newport. Ceasing to row, he 
was often a referee in boat races. He sailed his schooner and 
he was of use to the New York Yacht Club, as, for instance, 

5 



upon the special committee which disposed of the troublesome 
controversy with Lord Dunraven. 

He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from 
Amherst and from Princeton. 

He was always a scholar and a lover of literature. The sense 
of measure and proportion, which made him wise in counsel and 
reasonable in conduct, served as good taste when there was ques- 
tion of form or expression. 

His style in his letters, as in more formal composition, was cor- 
rect and simple, clear and with little ornament, but on occasion 
there were touches of humor and sentences that were trenchant 
and shining. 

In 1893 he edited, with careful annotation, the correspondence 
of his great-grandfather, Thomas Barclay. The book is more 
than a mere collection of letters; it is excellent biography, full of 
grace and charm. 

In 1 91 3, Rives published a history — The United States and 
Mexico {1821-1848). It has taken its place among the few first- 
rate American histories and is likely to be the accepted record of 
the time. Had he lived longer, he might have continued this 
story of our diplomatic relations with our Southern neighbor 
to a more recent date. The book brought to its author the 
distinction of membership in the American Academy of Arts 
and Letters. 

To all these activities, great and small. Rives devoted himself 
with the same diligence and ordered effort which had charac- 
terized him as a practicing attorney, but he did not fail to 
recognize their relative importance, and of late years his labors 
were mainly given to three institutions which are among the 
chief expressions of our civilization. 

He was at the same time and until just before his death. Chair- 
man of the Board of Trustees of Columbia University, President 
of the Board of Governors of the New York Hospital, and 
President of the New York Public Library 

In dealing with the property and the business of great institu- 
tions, their relations to the state and the city, their obligations to 
their officers and employees and to the public, there is constant 
need to interpret charters and statutes, to understand trusts and 

6 



contracts, to apply the laws of property and of corporations, and 
in such work Rives employed his learning and his skill; but the 
activity of the lawyer was no longer separable from the broader 
usefulness of the good citizen. 

Rives was of quick apprehension, cool judgment, and firm 
decision. He was self-reliant and ready to accept responsibility. 
His mind worked with machine-like regularity and precision and 
served as a standard for the thinking of those about him . He was 
careful, industrious, punctual, and orderly. He had forethought 
and skill in business. He had courage. His friendships were 
enduring. He seemed little moved by praise or blame. He was 
free from cant and pretense. His principles were steadfast — 
rarely expressed in words, but always in behavior. He had the 
habit of duty and the instinct of honor. 

His unusual powers, highly trained, were steadily employed 
without waste or misdirection, and so his life was harmonious 
and consistent, without failure and with few disappointments, 
increasing in dignity and authority. 

It was an admirable and enviable life. 

Rives married on May 22, 1873, Caroline Morris Kean, of 
Elizabeth, New Jersey, who died March 29, 1887. On March 
20, 1889, he married Sara Whiting Belmont, of Newport, 
Rhode Island. His widow, two sons, and a daughter survive 
him. 









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